Introduction
If you have ever tried using ChatGPT, you know that sometimes it's hard to get exactly what you want. A lot of people get frustrated and decide to drop the tool. Please don't do that. You're about to learn how to get a lot out of it. Often, people go on the internet and find some half-baked prompt that somebody has written, but usually, the prompts that work for one person may not work for you. This frustration ends today.
The CIDI Framework
I'm about to teach you a simple framework that allows you to get the best possible output for you every single time. I came up with this framework one year ago when I was trying to find something simple to help people think in the same way I do when I'm writing a prompt. Since then, I've been teaching it to thousands of people all over the world who are using it successfully today.In this lesson, I'm going to show you how the framework works, and then in the next lesson, we're going to apply it to a few use cases.
The idea behind this framework is that you have to see ChatGPT as a piece in an assembly line. In this assembly line, you have data coming in, which is your prompt, ChatGPT does something with it, and then you have new data coming out, which is the output of ChatGPT. In statistics, there's a saying: garbage in, garbage out. If you don't put the right information into ChatGPT, you're not going to get the right output out of it.
Understanding CIDI
This framework is designed to always keep in mind what key information you need to put inside ChatGPT to get the best output. The framework is called CIDI, which stands for Context, Instructions, Details, and Input. Let's see how you can write a CIDI prompt:
- Context: Think about the context of your prompt. For example, if you walk into a bakery and start talking to the person behind the counter, there's a lot of context. This person knows that you're probably a customer, and you know that this person is going to sell you bread. Similarly, in your prompt, you need to provide the necessary context.
- Instructions: Be assertive and clear about what you want ChatGPT to do. For instance, if you want to write an email, tell ChatGPT exactly what you need from it.
- Details: Provide specific details that you want included in the output. This could be the tone of voice, specific points you want to be highlighted, or any other relevant details.
- Input: Include the specific elements that are necessary for your prompt. This could be a description of a course, the value it provides, and any other specific information that should be included in the final output.
Practical Example
Let's suppose you want to write an email for AI Academy promoting a new course. Your prompt might look like this:
- Context: Act as a professional email copywriter hired by AI Academy, a company that provides practical education for non-technical people who want to play an active role in the AI revolution.
- Instructions: I will give you information about a training that I'm about to sell. You will provide text for an email to send to my newsletter subscribers.
- Details: Use a professional, concise tone. Include a call to action at the end, optimize the email for conversions, and highlight the value of the product.
- Input: The new course is called the Generative AI Project Bootcamp, a two-month program where people learn how to build their own AI projects.
Conclusion
Now you know the CIDI framework. It's much easier to learn with an example, so in the next lessons, you're going to see how I apply it to two different use cases: writing social media posts and writing an entire essay. I'll see you in the next lesson.
